The Fat Duck - London, UK (No. 2 ranked restaurant in the world) Review

1 Comment December 15, 2009 / Posted in Food & Wine, Reviews

One of Fat Duck's very interesting tasting dishes - Snail Porridge with joselito ham and shaved fennel

The Fat Duck
High St,
Bray - Berkshire
SL6 2AQ - UK
Ph: +44 (0) 1628 580 333

I have been to some of the best restaurants in London such as Gordon Ramsay’s at Claridges (his dishe’s were quite heavy and rich but really nice), Giorgio Locatelli’s Locanda Locatelli, Zaffareno and Rivers Cafe to name a few. How can I afford all this winning and dinning? Well, it’s a combination of work and play (dining with customers) :).

The most pretegious of them all is Heston Bluementhal’s The Fat Duck. A colleague of mine was taking his customers and asked me whether I wanted to tag along. I jumped right at the opportunity :). The Fat Duck competes with El Bulli in Spain for the title of best restaurant in the world. Currently The Fat Duck is ranked 2 in the top 50 restaurants and has a 3 star Michelin rating! (only 1 or 3 in the UK and Ireland)

The concept between El Bulli and Fat Duck is very similar, firstly it’s hard to book, secondly, it emphasizes on aestheticnesss, thirdly, it’s a degustation menu only where you get to sample different dishes in a very small portion and most importantly it mixes science with food.

The difference between El Bulli and Fat Duck (apart from its location) is El Bulli is only opened for a few months of the year (during summer) thus making booking the restaurant almost impossible (1- 2 years waiting list is expected) but with Fat Duck you have a better chance as it opens day and night almost all year round :).

OK, lets talk about science and food. It literally felt like I was in a science lab. They cook your food right in front of you on your table by using liquid nitrogen to create dishes such as Nitro Green Tea and Lime Mousse and Nitro scrambled egg and bacon ice cream. Another highlight was the unexpectant flavour - just by looking at the dish, it looks like an ice cream but it’s actually a scrambled egg and bacon ice cream or it looks like a corn flakes and milk but they’re actually made of parsnip. Another unique thing was they brought us a fat duck ipod to listen to certain sounds of the sea while they bring out dishes that replicates what you are listening to :).

Anyhow, I enjoyed the experience very much and was lucky to have been to the number 2 top restaurant in the world. I’m trying my best to secure a spot at El Bulli and the moment I get the reservation, I will jump on a plane to Spain followed by an hour or so drive to the restaurant - will keep you posted :).

Since I did not pay the bill - I could not remember exactly how much the degustation meal costs, but I think it was around GBP140 (sterling or pounds) not including wine.

For The Fat Duck Dishes I shall let my pictures speak for themselves